Academics are standing by the criticism they made about two of the most prestigious universities here — comments of which were published in a TODAY article exploring the reasons why arts and humanities academics left the institutions.
The article in subject was taken down on Jan 10 after it became “the subject of a legal challenge”, according to Mediacorp, TODAY’s publishers. In response to Mothership’s media queries, Mediacorp stated that its lawyers are looking into the matter, but did not mention who exactly issued the legal challenge.
Published on Jan 6, “Opaque policies, fixation with KPIs, rankings: Why arts and humanities academics quit NUS, NTU” exposed the alleged issues that former faculty members of the National University of Singapore and the Nanyang Technological University faced during their time there. The academics that TODAY spoke to claimed that the “incessant pursuit of rankings”, the “relative lack of academic freedom”, and the “pressure for research output” drove them to quit.
One former NUS academic said that he grew “incredibly depressed” from his two-year stint at the university thanks to the “high-pressure conditions” placed on the faculty to push the college up the global rankings.
‘Saddened by this apparent intolerance’
Now, the five academics cited in the TODAY article are taking a stand. In a statement issued on Saturday, they affirmed their comments and expressed sadness over the “intolerance” shown in the quest to censor their opinions.
“As academics with collective experience in many countries besides Singapore, we believe that freedom of expression and active public debate are foundational to scholarly excellence and the advancement of human knowledge,” wrote professors John DiMoia, Axel Gelfert, Linda Lim, Andrew Quitmeyer and Woo Jun Jie. All five of them are now based overseas.
“We hope that the situation will be quickly resolved in a manner that will not be discouraging to our fellow academics in Singapore, or those who may contemplate working there in (the) future.”
An NUS representative has confirmed that the institution has sought legal advice over the “allegations” made in the TODAY piece, asserting that the article caused some damage to its reputation.
“The article has unfairly affected the reputation and standing of NUS locally and internationally. It affects not just the institution, but also serving academics and students,” wrote the NUS spokesperson to Mothership.
In response to the five academics’ statement, however, an NUS spokesman stressed to The Straits Times that the college upholds “principles of academic freedom and open inquiry”. They also implied that the TODAY article was neither accurate nor objective.
“…the university also wishes that any article about us published in our mainstream media should be impartial and factually accurate, so that the public can come to its own conclusions in a fair and objective manner.”
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